News and Notes
Commentary From the Editors
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Madonna to Direct Dick Van Dyke in "Wallis and Edward"? We Can Only Hope
Madonna is said to be writing and directing a new film about Wallis Warfield Simpson. Wallis was the American divorcee who in 1936 winkled King Edward VIII into abdicating the entire British throne (including the title of Emperor of India, in those days) to marry her.
Vera Farmiga may star as Wallis. Or so say the reports.
The Guardian turns the news into a tart commentary on Madonna's film career to date:
Her Eva Perón was the least bearable Eva Perón in history, which is really saying something. And her dreadful, stilted 20-second cameo in Die Another Day was enough to spook the 007 producers into completely overhauling the entire James Bond franchise.And:
The promise of a historical drama written by the woman responsible for the immortal couplet "I like to singy singy singy/ Like a bird on a wingy wingy wingy" can't fill too many people with enthusiasm. Nor, for that matter, can the prospect of a film about a seminal moment in the history of the British monarchy directed by a woman whose own British accent sounds like Dick Van Dyke choking to death on a pair of bootstrings.Well, the Brits are still touchy about the whole crazy affair, after all. Not to mention about Dick Van Dyke -- who, by the way, might have made an excellent Edward VIII in his day, with Julie Andrews (natch) as Wallis Simpson. Which would you prefer:
The grim reality? Or...
"It's a jolly exile-for-life with Wallis!"
We know which we'd pick. Although, granted, "Dick Van Dyke choking to death on a pair of bootstrings" is a pretty good line.
But forget all that. Forget Simpson and Madonna, forget Vera Farmiga (if you can), and forget the bootstrings.
The burning question is: who will play Guy Trundle?
Labels: Dick Van Dyke, Eva Peron, James Bond, King Edward VIII, Madonna, Vera Farmiga, Wallis Simpson
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 5:40 PM0 comments 
Friday, January 15, 2010
Vera Farmiga PHOTOS Over Time
Vera Farmiga -- jeepers, has any actress ever had so many looks in just a few years?
Vera Farmiga as she looks in Up In the Air, her 2009 movie with George Clooney. (This is the scene where they meet in a hotel bar.) Farmiga was 35 when the movie was filmed.
Vera Farmiga on 12 January 2010, at the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Awards gala in New York City. Her husband, Renn Hawkey, is at left.
Vera Farmiga again at the Mann Village Theater -- this time for the premiere of her movie Orphan on 21 July 2009.
Photo of Vera Farmiga at a screening of Joshua in New York City on 3 July 2007.
Vera Farmiga with Renn Hawkey (also looking different) at the Madame Butterfly Metropolitan Opera gala opening at Lincoln Center on 25 September 2006.
Here she is on 18 January 2006, at the New York premiere of Breaking and Entering.
And back to 2008: Farmiga at a screening of Nothing But the Truth in New York City on 13 November 2008.
Well, good for her. One thing that doesn't change is those Newman-blue eyes.
Still more photos of Vera Farmiga >>
(All photos supplied by WENN, plus credits: At 2010 gala, L. Gallo; at 'Orphan' premiere, Nikki Nelson; at 'Joshua' and 'Breaking and Entering,' PNP; at 'Madame Butterfly,' Doug Meszler)
Labels: Vera Farmiga
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 11:30 AM0 comments
Thursday, December 31, 2009
George Clooney Sticks Out His (Slightly Aging) Neck in 'Up In the Air'
Movie Review: Up In the AirDirected by Jason Reitman
At the AMC Newport on the Levee 20
Pre-movie meal: pomegranate seeds and a half-shot of JTS Brown
Is there any other movie star in America today who would give us an honest peek at his starting-to-get-wrinkly 48-year-old neck the way George Clooney does near the end of in Up In the Air?
No. No, there isn't. There are many (Nicholson and Eastwood come to mind) who've done it when they're 64 and they can seem heroic for showing their age plainly onscreen, or can play it for silly-sex-scene laughs as a defensive maneuver. (*cough* Harrison Ford *cough*) But otherwise it won't happen, not if a star is still young enough to play leading men, even if only in his own mind.
It won't happen because most actors would never let that moment stay in the script, and the cinematographer (if he values his job) would shoot it so that the star looks great anyway, and even then the director would hesitate to shoot it because the studio would never leave it in and the actor's going to change his mind when he sees the rough cut and then you've got hassles.
(Clooney, with Anna Kendrick as his protege. No, this is not quite THAT neck scene. None of these photos are.)
It's not like it's a terrible wattle-y old man's neck anyway. It's just a hint of a not-perfect neck, a hint of the wattle-y old man's neck it will someday be. And that hint is pretty much what Up In the Air is all about.
You know the story basics: Clooney is a corporate terminator, a guy who flies around the country firing people. He has the gall to tell them in that same moment, in practiced self-actualization-speak, that it's the greatest thing that ever happened to them because now they can follow their dreams and conquer mountains and be the gourmet chefs they always wanted to be.
Not every terminated 53-year-old middle manager is glad to hear this glorious news.
The real story, though, is about Clooney's gleeful embrace of rootlessness, in the form of first-class flying and Hilton hotel stays and a carry-on bag he never has to check as luggage. His goal: to hit 10 million frequent flyer miles and become a made man, American Airlines-style, with super-duper-elite status for life.
Which is a goal that seems believable and even charming, because Clooney is so darned smooth. Up In the Air is like Clooney's last Oscar-nominated film, Michael Clayton, in one big way: in both cases, the lead is supposed to start as a jerk and then slowly come around to good-guy status, as the audience roots for him to come around. With Clooney the problem is that even when he plays a jerk, we like him right away, instinctively. It blows up that whole emotional arc.
That's dangerous here because Up In the Air is gently asking the question, "Is this seductive rootlessness and motion-for-the-sake-of-motion really where we all want to be going with our lives?" With Clooney on screen the answer is "Yes! Yes it is!"
That said, Up In the Air deserves all kinds of credit for taking the steps of the standard movie plot, as well-practiced as the steps for making the morning coffee, and spinning them around to surprise us. There must have been five times when I thought "Oh, now THIS is going to happen," only to have that thing not happen at all. This movie has its surprises.
And the two women cast with Clooney -- Vera Farmiga as his fellow-traveler-of-a-certain-age, and Anna Kendrick as his young go-getter protege -- are just beautifully cast. And appropriately hot in that we're-all-pretending-they're-not-really-hot-Hollywood-actresses-because-this-is-a-thoughtful-movie way. If Farmiga doesn't get tons of opportunities out of this, the way Virginia Madsen did out of Sideways, I'll be amazed. (Though honestly, playing believably sexy opposite George Clooney is a little easier than playing believably sexy opposite Paul Giamatti.)
Also, Sam Elliot appears in a witty cameo that would be a hilarious cameo if the moment he appears into weren't so sad. This isn't entirely a comedy/romance, even if it's billed as such.
I liked Up In the Air a lot. Is it a possible best picture winner? Jeepers, who even knows what qualifies any more? But it will get nominated. And I have a strong, strong feeling that Clooney is going to win his first best actor Oscar for this film. (He won best supporting actor for Syriana in 2008.) Because, well, because he's been in a ton of good movies and the right number of blockbusters and because it's time. And because he risked his neck.
I give Up In the Air 8.7 million frequent flier miles out of a possible 10 million.
And now for a downer ending: Shame on AMC for nearly driving us from the theater with an unconscionable (and unbeLIEVable) 30 minutes of ads and trailers before the movie. Truly, 30 minutes. (What are we, the sap audience for Transformers III?) Capped off, after increasingly loud and violent trailers, by a stupid pretend-hip promo demanding we turn off our cell phones: "Please, don't add your own sound to the movies."
Followed by one more ad for Coke.
Drop dead, AMC Theaters.
More movie photos of George Clooney >>
(Images supplied by WENN.)
Labels: Anna Kendrick, George Clooney, Movie Reviews, Up In the Air, Vera Farmiga
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 3:42 AM0 comments
